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The UK’s most iconic canals and rivers will soon be added to Google Street View

Britain’s canals and rivers will soon be available in Google Street View, after the Canal & River Trust announced that it had been selected as the first group to receive a Google Trekker on loan in the UK.

Spotted by Pocket Lint (via Tech Radar), the Trust will begin with the iconic Regent’s Canal in London, before spending a month walking along over 100 miles of beautiful waterside routes spread out across the UK. The Bingley Five Rise and the Grand Union Canal are but a couple of the locations that the Trust plans to cover.

Google Trekker is essentially a custom backpack, fitted with a 15-angle lens camera capable of shooting 360-degree pictures every 2.5 seconds. The walkers themselves don’t really have to do anything – the shots are pretty much automated, then joined and uploaded to Google Maps for all to see.

Google Trekker has been to some pretty spectacular places – many of which have now been documented with behind the scenes videos – and more coverage in the UK can only be of benefit to users.

Nick Summers is a technology journalist for The Next Web. He writes on all sorts of topics, although he has a passion for gadgets, apps and video games in particular. You can reach him on Twitter, circle him on Google+ and connect with him on LinkedIn.